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Gas Russia Used in Hostage Siege Was Fentanyl, U.S. Officials Say WASHINGTON (AP) - The gas Russian authorities used at the end of a Moscow hostage crisis, which killed 116 of the captives, was the anesthesia fentanyl or another drug related to it, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

In Moscow, U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow offered the first official American criticism of the Russians' continued refusal to identify the substance used.

"It's clear that perhaps with a little more information, at least a few more of the hostages may have survived," Vershbow said.

Russian authorities pumped the gas into a theater where separatist rebels were holding more than 800 people hostage Saturday. The gas killed 116 hostages; 50 hostage-takers also died, many from gunshot wounds.

Relatives of Oklahoman Sandy Booker, 49, said Russian authorities notified them Tuesday that Booker was among the dead.

Based on reports from doctors who visited some of the American hostages, U.S. officials believe the gas was an opiate - a drug related to morphine and heroin, Vershbow said. Other U.S. officials identified the drug as fentanyl, commonly used in anesthesia and to relieve severe pain.

Fentanyl is a fast-acting narcotic that in large doses can shut down breathing and cause death from lack of oxygen. A hundred times more potent than morphine, fentanyl also has been abused for the highs it produces.

The effects of opiates like fentanyl can be reversed with the drug naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan. U.S. officials say some of the hostages responded to doses of Narcan, which bolstered the belief that the Russians used an opiate to knock out the hostage-takers and their captives.

Fentanyl was among drugs that Pennsylvania State University researchers suggested two years ago the U.S. military explore as weapons to subdue angry mobs. The Pentagon has put such research on hold, however, because of worries that it would violate the international ban on chemical weapons.

Whether Russia's use of the gas in the hostage situation would violate the treaty is unclear, since the pact allows for the use of chemical agents for law enforcement purposes.

At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer avoided criticizing the Russian government's response to the hostage crisis.

"The president feels very strongly that responsibility for this rests with the terrorists who took these people hostage and put them in harm's way in the first place," Fleischer said.

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On the Net: National Library of Medicine fentanyl page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/fentanylsystemic203780.html

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2002

Answers

Interesting.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2002

I have to side with the Russians over this. I don't see what else they could have done. I understand there was not enough antidote available because the authorities figured Chechen spies would pass on the info, i.e., that significant amounts had been ordered from the manufacturer, that same was delivred, distributed to hospitals, parceled out to ambulances, etc., etc.

Very hard choice but I honestly don't see any other option.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2002

As I said on another thread, it was a lose-lose situation no matter what, and I hate to second guess the decision -- that may well have been their best option given the resources they had on hand at the time.

As hard as that was, at least they didn't give in to the terrorists -- no one anywhere would've been safe if they had.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2002

Proverbial nutshell, Meemur, precisely so.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2002

Yes, it was a no win situation.

Tough call on what to do, but I think they did the 'right thing', if there is really a right thing. One question I have is... why didn't they use the gas that is used to put people out for surgery? I know sometimes it is a shot, but other times it is a gas.

This stuff, if it is indeed what was used, is mostly used for surgery procedures where the patient must remain awake.

I know the times I was put under and told to count backwards from 1000 I was doing very good to get to 998.

I would have hated to be put in the position to make the determination as to what action to take. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. No win situation for both the hostages as well as the politicians/military officials.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2002

picking the right gas may have had something to do with inflammability, or some other chemical reactions that could have raised the risk of losing the whole building, and maybe the whole block.

Jes' thinking. I am not a chemist nor do I play one on tv.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2002